Port Profiles

Port profiles contain the properties and settings used to configure virtual interfaces in Cisco UCS for VN-Link in hardware. The port profiles are created and administered in Cisco UCS Manager. There is no clear visibility into the properties of a port profile from VMware vCenter.

In VMware vCenter, a port profile is represented as a port group. Cisco UCS Manager pushes the port profile names to vCenter, which displays the names as port groups. None of the specific networking properties or settings in the port profile are visible in VMware vCenter.

After a port profile is created, assigned to, and actively used by one or more DVSes, any changes made to the networking properties of the port profile in Cisco UCS Manager are immediately applied to those DVSes.

You must configure at least one port profile client for a port profile, if you want Cisco UCS Manager to push the port profile to VMware vCenter.

Port Profile Clients

The port profile client determines the DVSes to which a port profile is applied. By default, the port profile client specifies that the associated port profile applies to all DVSes in the vCenter. However, you can configure the client to apply the port profile to all DVSes in a specific datacenter or datacenter folder, or only to one DVS.

If your description includes spaces, special characters, or punctuation, you must begin and end your description with quotation marks. The quotation marks will not appear in the description field of any show command output.

The maximum number of ports that can be associated with a single distributed virtual switch (DVS) is 4096. If the DVS has only one associated port profile, that port profile can be configured with up to 4096 ports. However, if the DVS has more than one associated port profile, the total number of ports associated with all of those port profiles combined cannot exceed 4096.

If your description includes spaces, special characters, or punctuation, you must begin and end your description with quotation marks. The quotation marks will not appear in the description field of any show command output.

The port profile client determines the DVSes to which the port profile is applied. By default, a port profile applies to all DVSes in the vCenter; however, you can use the optional set data-center, set folder, and set dvs commands to apply the port profile to all DVSes in a specific datacenter or datacenter folder, or to a specific DVS.

If your description includes spaces, special characters, or punctuation, you must begin and end your description with quotation marks. The quotation marks will not appear in the description field of any show command output.